April 2021
Repertoire
Performers
Midori, violin
Orquestra Simfònica Camera Musicae
Tomàs Grau, conductor
Programme notes
A CONCERT FOR A VIRTUOSO
Throughout the history of music, many of the concerts for solo instruments have been written with some virtuoso in mind. This is the case of the Johannes Brahms Violin Concerto, premiered in 1879. A work written for his friend and violinist Joseph Joachim, from whom he asked for advice, and which contains many passages with great technical difficulty. Another great violinist, Pablo Sarasate, called this work ‘the concerto against the violin’.
A year after this date, another younger composer, Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, completed the third and final version of the Romeo and Juliet Overture-Fantasy. Bellini, Berlioz, Gounod and Prokofiev are some of the composers who throughout history have written music based on Shakespeare’s well-known text.
The initial idea to set music to The Lovers of Verona came from the leader of the “Group of Five”. Mili Balakirev wrote a letter to Tchaikovsky in 1869 not only suggesting the composition of an overture to the story of Romeo and Juliet, but also including musical examples and possible ideal tonalities. At the time, the young and insecure Pyotr Ilyich accepted his mentor’s advice and even sent him the finished score for comment. The premiere of this first version took place in 1870.
Ten years later, a mature Tchaikovsky, confident in his musical style, changed the introduction and modified the structure of the work until he achieved the version we can enjoy.
CONCERT DATES
Midori & OCM
Biography Midori
Midori is a visionary artist, activist and educator whose unique career has transcended traditional boundaries through her relentless drive to explore and build connections between music and the human experience. Never at rest, Midori brings the same dynamic innovation and expressive insight that has made her a prominent concert violinist to her other roles as a noted global cultural ambassador and a dedicated music educator.
A leading concert violinist for over 35 years, Midori regularly transfixes audiences around the world, bringing together graceful precision and intimate expression that allows the listening public to not just hear music but to be personally moved by it. She has performed with, among many others, the London, Chicago, Boston, and San Francisco symphony orchestras, the Berlin, Vienna, New York, Los Angeles, St Petersburg and Czech philharmonics, the Sinfonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks, and the Mahler Chamber Orchestra. She has collaborated with such outstanding musicians as Claudio Abbado, Leonard Bernstein, Emanuel Ax, Zubin Mehta, Seiji Ozawa, Christoph Eschenbach, Mariss Jansons, Paavo Järvi, Antonello Manacorda, Constantinos Carydis, Yo-Yo Ma, Susanna Mälkki, and Menahem Pressler.
Midori was born in Osaka, Japan, in 1971 and began her violin studies with her mother, Setsu Goto, after displaying a strong aptitude for music at an early age. In 1982, conductor Zubin Mehta invited the then 11-year-old Midori to perform with the New York Philharmonic in the orchestra’s annual New Year’s Eve concert. The standing ovation that followed her debut spurred Midori on to pursue a major musical career at the highest level.
Midori plays the 1734 Guarnerius del Gesù ‘ex-Huberman’ and she uses four bows – two by Dominique Peccatte, one by François Peccatte and one by Paul Siefried.